netflixed

I had almost no expectations for The Road, despite having admired director Hillcoat's The Proposition, and of course having loved the novel, and of course loving Viggo Mortenson. So I watched it the other night suffering from acute insomnia and that's the best time to see such a bleak film; under duress, unable to read or think, and capable only of wallowing in misery.

There's a lot in which to wallow here. If you read the book, you know what I mean. The film follows rather closely Cormac McCarthy's grim vision. And no, you can't really film what made the novel special, namely McCarthy's Biblical prose and the way love and hope somehow win out in his frank portrayal of violence and despair. But the cast is great, the settings are sufficiently grim, and after a couple days without sleep and with continuous images of earthquakes, floods, and fish and fowl coated in oil bombarding us all the movie fit my mood. Surprised to see Robert Duvall and my man Omar Little in brief cameos. Would I recommend it having seen it wide awake in the theater? Probably not. But I liked it fine in the wee hours.